Telephone answering machines in general are well known in the prior art. Such machines respond to an incoming telephone ring signal to cause a recorded announcement to be sent over the telephone line to a calling party during a first time interval (T.sub.1), and then automatically to enter a message recording mode during a second time interval (T.sub.2) during which the message from the calling party is recorded. The recorded announcement is usually contained on a continuous loop magnetic tape cassette, and the messages from the calling parties are usually recorded on a magnetic tape in a C-60 type cassette which is drawn from a supply reel to a take-up reel.
The mechanism of the present invention which controls the two magnetic tape units is similar in some respects to the mechanism described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,329 which is assigned to the present assignee. However, in the mechanism of the present invention a single reversible motor and a centrifugal clutch are used to drive both the announcement and message tape units, the motor being rotated in one direction to drive the announcement tape unit and in the opposite direction to drive the message tape unit.